Drought-hit Andhra Pradesh farmers spray crops with banned animal hormone 'oxytocin'

HYDERABAD: Desperate to save their standing crop in the face of severe drought, paddy farmers here have turned to the animal hormone oxytocin.

Widely used by farmers to artificially promote growth in fruits and vegetables, oxytocin is banned for use in agriculture and animal husbandry.

According to researchers at Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, paddy farmers who have lost a major portion of their standing crop due to the prolonged dry spell are spraying oxytocin in the fields as the last resort.

This is the first time paddy farmers are using the non-plant hormone to pump up the growth process.

Health experts, however, warn that this could prove catastrophic not only for paddy cultivation but also people who consume the produce.

Since this is the first instance of its use in paddy cultivation, they are all the more wary as it is difficult to predict how exactly the hormone will react with the plant.

Just this week, on Wednesday, the Hyderabad high court had come down heavily on the practice of adding chemicals to artificially enhance the growth of fruits.

A bench headed by acting chief justice Dilip B Bhosale called those responsible for such malpractices "worse than terrorists" and asked Andhra Pradesh, Telangana governments to crack down on fruit-growers and sellers who use calcium carbide as a ripening agent.